Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 18
th, 2017 at 3:24am:
Brian Ross wrote on Jul 17
th, 2017 at 9:20pm:
Black Orchid wrote on Jul 17
th, 2017 at 8:48pm:
Anything to do with terrorism should me handled by the military. They are trained en masse for such things.
So, you don't think that just might constitute a problem?
The SASR are trained to kill, not to control. Police are trained to control, not kill. Which would you prefer to see in charge of a Terrorist incident?
Yes - but only when the situation is clearly out of control.. the on-the-job action (based on training) is controlled by officers who exercise judgement, in co-ordination with civil authorities (in siege situations) - as to whether or not the 'kill' option is the only one left on the table.
In the Iranian Embassy situation, a hostage had already been executed.... thus all bets were off and the eight man intrusion team were on 'shoot-to-kill'. The reasons for that are not just containing the situation, but containing ANY possibility that explosive devices could be triggered by any live terr. Same thing happened with the Gibraltar IRA incident - the NEED to prevent triggering explosive devices over-rules the 'need' to contain the situation, and the only way to do that is to ensure there are no terrs left to set off a bomb.
That is why highly trained military personnel should only be used in extreme circumstances.
To use them in containable situations is to run a very big risk of unnecessary death, but it's a hard call.
That was the previous theory, Grappler. The new theory is that the military are in control of the situation, once the police identify it as a "Terrorist incident". The military, while disciplined, is also prone to shooting first, asking questions if at all, later. The military view of any situation is how do I solve it with firearms. The police view is how do they solve it, perhaps if necessary, with firearms. While I hope we would not see the military failing to exercise control over their troops, it is always a possibility, as events in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown.
What I think is going to happen, what I hope is going to happen is that they will work out a better way than what I have read about in the MSM being proposed by the Government. As I've said, the Police should be Strategic control. They can hand Operational control over to the Military for short periods where they can use their Tactical advantages, utilise their superior firepower and then take back the Operational control, once the situation has been resolved. However, at the moment it appears that the Military will have Strategic and Operational and Tactical control.